Speaking of sex (and I was), you have to go pretty low to disgust the trashy New York Post. But Patricia Heaton’s new sitcom, “Back to You” has the tabloid’s TV critic Adam Buckman taking the high ground: “If the makers of ‘Back to You’ could get their heads out of their underpants for two minutes…” began Buckman’s review last week, before replaying–for our disapprobation, of course–a bunch of below-the-belt (in every sense) one-liners in the show’s first episode.
For fans of Christians in Hollywood, however, the real shocker about “Back to You” is that it stars Heaton, late of “Everybody Loves Raymond.”
One of Hollywood’s most outspoken Christians, especially on the topic of TV sleaze, Heaton told Christianity Today in 2004, “People in America are very frustrated about what’s coming through their television sets, and they feel like nobody in Hollywood cares.” As a mother of two, Heaton knows that kids are the biggest concern. “You can’t have them watch the news because they’ll do stories about someone’s sexual misbehavior,” she said in another CT interview late last year. “You can’t have anything on.”
So what’s Heaton doing mugging to genitalia jokes Wednesdays at 8 p.m.?
Show business is a rough trade, and actors have to take the work they’re offered. But if you’re coming off an eight-year stint as the female lead in what was for a long while the country’s highest-rated comedy, you probably have more choices than most of L.A.’s waitstaff. Perhaps when she read the script for “Back to You,” with its frequent mentions of body parts, she thought it was a knockoff of “Gray’s Anatomy”?
posted September 24, 2007 at 3:00 pm
I’m glad the lovely Patricia Heaton is in a new show, and glad ,too, that she’s standing up for Christianity-
posted September 24, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Patricia Heaton has been very rude to a number of undeserving targets – not just interviewers, but waitstaff and other “peons” as well – and is a poor example of a Christian. So she decries sex on TV. So she espouses “conservative” causes. Big whoop. That big plastic surgery makeover she had & prattled on about several years ago was the first clue. “By their actions shall ye know them” – and her actions have shown her to be shallow, self-centered, mean-spirited & mercenary.
posted September 25, 2007 at 10:08 am
Didn’t watch the pilot episode. Not a big fan of Kelsey Grammar, so I skipped it. However, I can’t believe that Ms. Heaton would bomb-out on this show. Well, you win some, you lose some! “Raymond” was such a big hit, so maybe she just has to find her way back??????
posted September 27, 2007 at 1:46 pm
While I am always delighted when my columns are referred to, or read, or posted, or even linked on various Web sites, I don’t know why the person who referred to my review of “Back to You” here felt it necessary to condemn my newspaper, The New York Post, as trash. Whether it is or isn’t trash is a matter of opinion, I guess, but I don’t know how that assessment is relevant here, in this discussion about Patricia Heaton. My column was merely reporting on the potty-mouthed dialogue in which her character (and Kelsey Grammer’s) engages in this new Fox comedy series. And to drive the point home, I felt obligated to report the examples in my column. It’s called journalism.
Have a nice day, everybody,
Signed,
Adam Buckman
TV columnist
New York Post
posted October 6, 2007 at 5:25 am
Adam:
I think the comment about your paper was made to show that if even a New York Post reviewer found the show raunchy it must be REALLY bad. You are right, of course–that assessment of your paper is a matter of opinion. But apparently the writer holds the opinion that your paper is “trashy”, and therefore used that as a way to portray just how bad “Back to You” is. Whether one agrees with that assessment or not, I can understand why the writer, holding that opinion, would include that in the column.
By the way, what about your comment, “everybody knows local TV news is a big joke anyway”? Should all local news people take offense at that?
posted November 8, 2007 at 4:37 pm
“By their actions shall ye know them?” “Patricia Heaton has been very rude to a number of undeserving targets – not just interviewers, but waitstaff and other “peons” as well – and is a poor example of a Christian.” Does the poster have any first-hand knowledge of this? Or is this just a convenient rumour to throw stones? “Back to You” is just a show. And it’s not WWE, or Survivor, or really much different from most sitcoms. It’s a little heavy on the double-entendres, so don’t watch it if you don’t like it. It’s funny how we “Christians” are so quick to judge others on third-hand info, rumours, and sit-com writing. I wonder what the poster does for a living. How many people have to collect debts, or sue, or do all manner of unpleasantness for their employers? Does that disqualify them as Christians? Maybe we should put our own lives under the microscope first. Or does it just make us feel better to quote one small excerpt from the Bible and feel superior? Isn’t there something in there like “Judge not, lest you be judged?” Wouldn’t it be refreshing to see someone actually discuss the issues raised in a show, in a way that relates belief to reality, without the inevitable deterioration to ad hominem attacks on individuals? Fat chance.